Diversionary Daily

Step Two

The other day I mentioned I was doing two things to get out a bit of a photographic rut. The first part involved getting some new lenses to play with.

The second step? An actual, real holiday.

Next week I'm flying out for London and then travelling on through Europe, for a largely unplanned couple of months. It's the first real break I'll have taken since December 2000 (and even that was rushed to fit around work).

And the best part is it's almost Autumn over there, so there'll be plenty of leaves lying around in case I run out of photos from June.

Actually I'm probably only half-joking about the leaves bit.

Posted on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 | Life | 7 Comments

Hovercar Parking

I got slightly distracted wandering through the city the other week, and ended up hunting down old brick walls and searching for traces of history in them.

Which is how I stumbled across this car parking space which, courtesy of an excavation, was a good two stories up in the air.

Posted on Monday, August 28, 2006 | Photos | 1 Comments

Step One

I've been stuck in a bit of a rut lately, and I haven't been taking many photos (which, combined with a distinct lack of interesting things to say, has cramped my style here).

The good news is that I'm undertaking a two step program to remedy this.

The first step involves the purchasing of new camera lenses: a 28-200mm zoom lens and a 50mm f1.8 lens, both shiny new Nikons. I'm looking forward to getting some nice depth-of-field shots with the f.18 lens, though I think it'll still fall short of the crazy macro on my old Coolpix camera (which was an amazing digicam for its time).

I've also just acquired a bright happy new Crumpler bag to keep my camera and new lenses in, along with the MacBook Pro I never got around to posting about. My trusty old red Crumpler, which has been my almost constant companion for about five years now, has been retired. The Crumpler is dead. Long live the Crumpler!

More details on Step Two tomorrow.

Posted on Sunday, August 27, 2006 | Photos | 2 Comments

Diversionary by Post

As part of the great Bam-Cube company merge, we're both moving to a new office, and this means that my wall of photos has also been taken down.

I've been trying to decide what to do with the resulting stack of photos, and rather than hang on to a giant pile of photos or go through the hassle of trying to sell them, I've decided it'd be fun to send them out as postcards.

If you've like a postcard, just drop me an email to sendmeapostcard@diversionary.net with your postal address and I'll send one out to you. If there's a particular photo (or just a colour or style of photo) you'd like, let me know, and I'll see what I can do.

Posted on Tuesday, August 22, 2006 | Photos | 1 Comments

Retreading

Has enough time passed since June that I can post another autumn leaf?

Nup, didn't think so.

Posted on Friday, August 11, 2006 | Photos | 1 Comments

The Hot Chocolate Runneth Over

Another trip to Melbourne, another overdose on hot chocolate. Here's this year's trip in a flashback-style highlights reel. Now with addresses, in case you're playing along at home.

Thursday: Little Peninsula

Little Peninsula's hot chocolate is somewhere between thick, rich Italian hot chocolate and the usual drinkable hot chocolate in cafés. It's served with a spoon, but still pretty liquid so you can just as happily drink it. This little wine bar is on Little Lonsdale just near Melbourne Central's office tower.
www.littlepeninsula.com.au - 308 Little Lonsdale Street.

Friday: Koko Black's Chilli Hot Chocolate

If you do happen to visit Koko Black (in the Royal Arcade, just off Bourke Street) make sure you go upstairs. Little tables and if you're lucky, big winged armchairs by the big arch windows onto the arcade are a great accompaniment to chocolate bliss. A little more la-de-da than the other purveyors of hot chocolate on this trip, Koko Black might be a bit stuffy, but their chilli hot chocolate is silkily warm with a nice chilli kick. Bonus points for the spider's web syrup decoration on the top.
www.kokoblack.com - Royal Arcade, Bourke Street.

Saturday: Brunetti, City Square

Ahhh, Brunetti. How do I love thee? Sitting with good company under the heaters outside as they close up the store around us at 10.30pm, sipping thick, Italian hot chocolate. Quite possibly the perfect way to end a Saturday night that began with a chinese meal, wine, and discussion of scary dreams, embarrassing rock moments and segway polo. When (not "if") you visit Brunetti, make sure you ask for cream on the side so you can dip teaspoonfuls in to the drink, which measures out the liquid-chocolate overdose.
www.brunetti.com.au - City Square, 214 Flinders Lane.

Sunday: Trampoline

Trampoline (who I've previously raved about for their great gelato) also have a chocolate fountain at their Brunswick Street store. Ask for a hot chocolate—it's not on the menu, but the posters all over the store advertise its "Not too thick. Not too thin"-ness—and they'll show you a paper cup about one-third full of chocolate (at this point it's polite to either giggle, drool quietly or generally swoon). Added to this is some frothed milk (think cafe latte) which is mixed, then topped with flaked chocolate. Tip: to avoid becoming laughter-fodder for staff, ask for a spoon to scrape the chocolate bits from the bottom of the cup. I get the impression we weren't the first to spend minutes waiting for gravity to bring the last of the chocolate within reach.
www.trampolinehq.com.au - 381 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

Monday: Max Brenner

I've raved in the past about Max Brenner's hyperventilation-inducing menu of hot chocolates, so if you've previously missed that, feel free to brush up now. In summary: if it's hot and chocolately, you'll probably find it here. I'm still yet to try the sucao DIY-approach, but everything I've tried has been good. Not amazing, but consistently good. And the hug mug is always good for a laugh.
www.maxbrenner.com.au - Menzies Alley, Melbourne Central, 300 La Trobe Street

Honourable mentions

There were a couple of places I didn't make it to on this last whirlwind trip to Melbourne, but I think they deserve a mention.

L'Aperitivo

This is where it all started back in 2004... I think it's still the best Italian hot chocolate I've found in Melbourne.
340 Glenhuntly Rd, Elsternwick

San Churro

I've heard and read many good things about this Spanish chocolate cafe. Check out this photo on flickr of their three shots of chocolate and tell me you don't want to pay them a visit.
www.sanchurro.com - 277b Brunswick Street, Fitzroy

Still no word on Italian hot chocolate in Perth, mostly because I'm otherwise absorbed at work.

And lazy.

Posted on Sunday, August 6, 2006 | Hot Chocolate , Melbourne 2006 | 5 Comments